ecoPayz updated its account terms of service, FCA suspended ePayments, Knect adjusted terms & conditions, Skrill and Neteller prepaid cards no longer work outside the EEA zone. This is what happened in February 2020.
ecoPayz updated terms of service
ecoPayz has amended the rules for using ecoAccounts. Almost all of them refer to responsibility for the storage of clients’ personal data. According to the GDPR regulations, any European company does not have the right to disclose the data of customers without their prior consent. However, when you make a deposit or withdraw funds, your data in one way or another becomes known to third-party companies engaged in transactions. Therefore, ecoPayz amended rules 18.3, 26.1, 26.2, 26.3, 26.4. In short, you consent to the processing of your data by third-party providers, and if something goes wrong, ecoPayz is not responsible. Moreover, if ecoPayz becomes aware fo the fact that the provider has not properly disposed of your data, they have the right to suspend the account.
Additionally, there were changes to rule 17.1, stating that fees indicated in your account have the priority over the ones on the website. This is probably due to the fact that the site does not always have time to update information for all countries and all deposit/withdrawal methods.
FCA suspended ePayments
At the beginning of February 2020, FCA has banned ePayments to the following limitations: deposits and withdrawals from user accounts, registrations of new customers, customer payments processing. All clients were notified on February 11. The current status of the company can be found on the FCA website by searching Epayments Systems Ltd.
Why this all happened? Well, FCA has not yet revealed the details. The community is full of assumptions, including cooperation with high-risk industries, insufficient user verification, dubious operations with cryptocurrency, etc., although ePayments claims to be cooperating with a regulatory authority. Currently, nobody knows how much time will it take to get everything back on track. In the meantime, all customer funds remain blocked. Most likely, the money will be returned to users, since the FCA obliges controlled companies to ensure reliable storage of funds. That is why we are writing about this news. FCA is a reliable guarantor of the safety of funds, and they control activities of ecoPayz, Skrill and NETELLER
Knect adjusted the rules
Skrill Knect loyalty program will no longer offer bonuses for transfers between users. Clients with VIP Silver status and above transferred money to each other for free and received rewards for this. This venture is obviously negative for Skrill, and thus it was cancelled. On the other hand, users without statuses who pay a commission of 1.45% bring good profit to the system. It would be logical if they accrued points for this. Such an approach would partially offset the costs of these transfers. Since the Knect was launched recently, it is expected that the program will be revised more than once.
In addition, to participate in the Knect program users should: 1) replenish their accounts by any method other than NETELLER, Paysafecard or bitpay (applies to residents of EEA and UK only) 2) replenish their accounts with any method other than NETELLER, Paysafecard or bitpay or pass full account verification (applies to residents of all countries except EEA and UK).
And the last change concerns the accrual of points for deposits. Now there is a list of sites for which deposits will not count towards the loyalty program. Bet365 is currently the only one on this list. You can check the actual list of merchants under Knect -> Earn points ->Transfer to Merchant (exceptions only) in your account.
Skrill & NETELLER prepaid Mastercard will no longer work outside the EEA
Starting from May 1, 2020, Skrill and NETELLER cards will no longer work in countries that are not members of the EEA (European Economic Area). If you are an EEA resident and have moved outside the EEA, then you can use the card as if you were at home. Considering current problems with ePayments and the increasingly strict regulation of electronic payment systems in Europe, this measure is well justified.
FYI: residents of all European countries can receive Skrill Prepaid Mastercard® and Net + Prepaid Mastercards® and use them to withdraw money from ATMs and pay in stores. For VIP statuses, card issue and delivery are free of charge.
